Why the Cards can't Run

[Cardiac]

No. It's a sign of stupidity.

I say a stupid schizoprhenic.

 

[john h]

That is one heck of a first post.

Thanks for taking a lot of time and effort to break down our play. I think we all know we have a bad OL but you put a face on it. I did not see you mention Leonard Davis at all??? What is your take on his play in this game? You have to wonder if our coaches go to the same efforts you did to come to the conclusion the defenders know when we are going to run and when we are going to pass?

 

[john h]

Arrogance, Ego...name your poison. Denny has proven that he built the OL and cannot bring himself to dismantle it so he has hired 3 OL coaches and fired 2 of them.

Maybe Lindsey wasn't nearly the problem we thought he was last year?

It sure sounds like Wells was bad but without know the exactly blocking schemes and plays called, there is some wiggle room that Wells was not completely at fault. Still though, tough when he is singled out so much.

It clearly sounds as though the speed of the defenders was causing havoc for alot of the blocking schems the Cards were using.

Speed of the defenders or slowness of the OL??? As we have discussed many NFL teams are going for the smaller more athletic and faster OL so it is harder for the defenders to get around them. We have the largest OL in the NFL and arguable the slowest. Denny likes big big offensive lineman. Is it possible he is just not changing with the times? I really do not think he is a very deep thinker and certainly not an X & O coach. I have no idea what kind of leader he is or how he relates to his players. I do know that his method of "sending messages" by firing players and coaches has not worked.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Seriously. At this point, I want to try and use a 6 O Lineman set. Throw in an additional lineman and leave him there the entire game. Don't even announce him as an eligible receiver.

LT: Big (since we pretty much know he wont be moved to G)
LG: Lutui
LG: Wells
C: Leckey
RG: Liewinski/Brown
RT: Gorin/Ross

 

[Mulli]

You should add a 7th o-lineman since Wells plays as if he wasn't even there.

 

[red desert]

Speed of the defenders or slowness of the OL??? As we have discussed many NFL teams are going for the smaller more athletic and faster OL so it is harder for the defenders to get around them. We have the largest OL in the NFL and arguable the slowest. Denny likes big big offensive lineman. Is it possible he is just not changing with the times? I really do not think he is a very deep thinker and certainly not an X & O coach. I have no idea what kind of leader he is or how he relates to his players. I do know that his method of "sending messages" by firing players and coaches has not worked.

And the quicker footed players he moves inside to guard. Meaning Wells. And the more powerful run blockers he moves outside to tackle. Meaning Davis. Go figure.

 

[abomb]

What a great article. This crap falls solely on Denny.

The Cardinals announced in a loud and clear voice that they were running the ball, and the Bears were listening. Some sort of play-action or pass to a tight end out of one of those 2-TE I-formation sets might have been a good idea.

 

[ajcardfan]

And the quicker footed players he moves inside to guard. Meaning Wells. And the more powerful run blockers he moves outside to tackle. Meaning Davis. Go figure.

Wells was even worse at T than he is at G. He had maybe the worst game I've ever seen a Cardinals lineman play in the Minnesota game that ended 2003. And that's saying something. Lance Johnstone (Lance Johnstone!) beat him silly. Much worse than what Burgess did to Ross in Oakland this past Sunday.

 

[az1965]

So who gave Wells 5 years, 17 million contract...??? Those guys MUST BE FIRED!!

Also, Ross is right there behind Wells in sucking. If Aaron analyzes the Raiders game like this, I'm sure he will come to the conclusion that Ross is the worst lineman. Heck, if he analyzes all games this year, then every single lineman would turn out to be the worst lineman. And Green and Graves can't see that????

 

[football karma]

So who gave Wells 5 years, 17 million contract...??? Those guys MUST BE FIRED!!

The mistake was using the "middle" tender on Reggie when he was a restriced free agent -- meaning the compensation was something like a 6th round draft choice if he signed with another team

for a $1.2 mm offer per season, the Cardinals could have put a high tender on him, meaning if another team signed him they would owe the Cards a 1st round draft choice (the effect being, no other team would sign him)

By putting a small tender on him, all it took was one desperate team to give him an offer, and the Cards were in no position to create another hole on the offensive line -- and had to match.

 

[abomb]

The mistake was using the "middle" tender on Reggie when he was a restriced free agent -- meaning the compensation was something like a 6th round draft choice if he signed with another team

for a $1.2 mm offer per season, the Cardinals could have put a high tender on him, meaning if another team signed him they would owe the Cards a 1st round draft choice (the effect being, no other team would sign him)

By putting a small tender on him, all it took was one desperate team to give him an offer, and the Cards were in no position to create another hole on the offensive line -- and had to match.

Didnt the Cardinals match the offer sheet of another club?

edit: Yep.

The Arizona Cardinals on Tuesday retained guard Reggie Wells by matching the restricted free-agent offer sheet to which the Buffalo Bills had signed him late last week.

By matching the offer sheet, the Cardinals inherit the five-year, $17.6 million contract the Bills negotiated with the three-year veteran. The deal includes a $3 million signing bonus and a $2 million roster bonus.

Had the Cardinals opted not to match, they would have received Buffalo's sixth-round selection in the 2006 draft as compensation. Arizona retained a right of first refusal on Wells by making him a qualifying offer of $712,000 earlier this month. Thanks to the offer sheet, Wells will earn considerably more than that.

Boy, how does BUF's 6th rounder sound now? lol

 

[dreamcastrocks]

By putting a small tender on him, all it took was one desperate team to give him an offer, and the Cards were in no position to create another hole on the offensive line -- and had to match.

You do realize now that putting Wells in the lineup is creating holes in the offensive line for the defense to get through. Kind of ironic.

 

[AZCB34]

I think that's basically completely opposite of why Green has failed with oline. Every single season under Green we've had different starters at every position except Davis at LT and Ross at RT this year. Yeah, he's not been shy about dismantling any lineup we've had. It's been a regular Chinese fire drill, cutting, drafting and signing players, running them in and off the bench.

Injureis have had more to do with it than any real work unitl this year. Whatever, he has made a crappy product worse this year now that someone has finally started to really tinker with where to play people.

Step (the only starter really benched due to crappiness by my record), Wells and Big have been entranched here (wells has moved about mostly due to injuries), Ross has been entrenched when healthy too. What I have seen is some herky jerky Chinese fire drill with regards to backups and injuuries have given the appearance of dismantling the OL.

Whatever.

 

[Russ Smith]

The mistake was using the "middle" tender on Reggie when he was a restriced free agent -- meaning the compensation was something like a 6th round draft choice if he signed with another team

for a $1.2 mm offer per season, the Cardinals could have put a high tender on him, meaning if another team signed him they would owe the Cards a 1st round draft choice (the effect being, no other team would sign him)

By putting a small tender on him, all it took was one desperate team to give him an offer, and the Cards were in no position to create another hole on the offensive line -- and had to match.

That's a good point if we'd tendered him higher we could have gotten a draft pick for him. The question is, if Buffalo makes that same offer after a first round tender, would we still have matched, or taken the first rounder?


It is scary to think Buffalo thought that highly of Wells. I thought the deal was too high but I certainly didn't think we were nuts matching Wells because I assumed he was going to wind up at C and would be very important. I still think that's probably his most useful position.

 

[ajcardfan]

Whatever.

Hey, it's okay for you to be wrong.

I would never argue that injuries haven't played a role in the different lineups the past two years. But, these guys, except for Davis and, until today, Ross, have also been moved from one position to another, benched, cut, inactivated and resigned when perfectly healthy too. You bring up Wells, and they've played him at every spot except LT since Green has been here. And it hasn't all been due to injuries because they worked him at all those other spots even in minicamps. That's not what I call "entrenched", although they have stuck with him as a starter, somewhere, for the most part. Fred Wakefield was Green's special project, his next "David Dixon", and they worked him at every line position but center! And, now, he's a TE! I don't follow other teams as closely as the Cards of course, but I'd bet a lot of money that no other team has moved their olinemen around as much as we have under Green.

 

[az1965]

You do realize now that putting Wells in the lineup is creating holes in the offensive line for the defense to get through. Kind of ironic.

You beat me to it... addition by subtraction theory...

 

[kerouac9]

You bring up Wells, and they've played him at every spot except LT since Green has been here.

Didn't he play OLT against the Bucs at SDS? That was under Green. He "shut down" a totally unmotivated Simeon Rice.

 

[Duckjake]

Didn't he play OLT against the Bucs at SDS? That was under Green. He "shut down" a totally unmotivated Simeon Rice.

Starting offensive line for that game was:

LT Wells,LG Spikes,C Step, RG Bridges,RT Clement

Cards had 226 yards total offense. McCown was 16-36-115-0-1INT but wasn't sacked.

The last nine drives of the game, before the Cards took a knee twice to end it, consisted of a total of 26 plays for a combined ZERO yards of offense, two turnovers, 4 punts, a turnover on downs, and a missed FG.

You gotta love Cardinal football games.

 

[ajcardfan]

Didn't he play OLT against the Bucs at SDS? That was under Green. He "shut down" a totally unmotivated Simeon Rice.

Oh yeah, that's right. I remember there were plays in that game where Wells had taken his drop before Rice was even out of his stance. It was a dog of an effort by Rice.

 

[JC_AZ]

Great article since it confirms my observation that Wells has been the worst player on the line all year long. Worse than Stepanovich, worse than Ross, worse than Liewinski....he's sucked.

And now he is going to "protect" our QBOF from his blindside....

"and now with the FIRST pick of the 2007 Draft, the Arizona Cardinals pick...Brady Quinn, Notre Dame"...cause our 2006 QBOF is eating his meals through a straw!